Hastings allocated £2.2m for 390 new homes

Almost 400 new homes are set to be built in Hastings in the next four years following a Government investment of more than £2 million, according to Amber Rudd MP.

With the Government committed to building up to 200,000 new homes across the country by 2022, a total investment of £866 million was announced on Thursday.

This money will be used to fund 133 council-led housing projects across the country.

Hastings Borough Council has been allocated £2,225,000 to lead a project to build 390 new homes in the town over the next four years.

This money will be put towards a bid for the development of the new sports village containing a range of facilities – including a community stadium with a capacity of 3,000 – as well as to unlock land for the development of new homes.

The proposals were first unveiled in November 2016, which would give Hastings United Football Club a 3,000 capacity stadium, and a new home for Hastings & St Leonards Priory Cricket Club and South Saxons Hockey Club.

The complex would be situated in the middle two tiers of the existing Bexhill Road playing fields.

There would be a four-court sports hall, a gym for sports, fitness and healthy living activities and a dance studio, together with meeting rooms and full catering facilities.

A planning application was expected to be formally submitted at the start of this year but a spokesman for Keepmoat Homes said they had ‘no plans to build in Hastings’.

Elsewhere, the 32 council-led projects across the South East received an allocation of £224.5 million between them.

This is the first wave of funding from the Government’s £5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund which aims to build up to 500,000 homes across the South East region by 2022.

The latest investment will fund key local infrastructure projects including new roads, cycle paths, flood defences and land remediation work.

Housing Secretary Sajid Javid said: “My priority is building the homes this country desperately needs.

“This first wave of investment in projects across the South East will help get up to 50,000 homes off the ground, making a huge difference to communities across the region.

“This is just one of the many ways this Government is taking action to get Britain building homes again.”

Christian Brodie, chairman of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) – which received £82 million to help deliver 13,443 new homes across Kent, Essex, East Sussex, Thurrock and Southend – added: “Each of the schemes, championed by the respective council’s and endorsed by SELEP, will make an important contribution to the delivery of new homes.

“Having secured nearly £1 in every £10 of the £866m earmarked nationally to support local housing projects, it clearly shows the Government recognises the role our area can play in helping to fix the broken housing market.”